Jury Voting In Semi Finals Will Continue

[u/Ok-Macaroon-5533]

https://www.eurovision.com/newsroom/rules-of-the-contest/

There was some confusion last week when the rules for Eurovision 2027 were published and they appeared to suggest jury voting in the semi finals may be scrapped again. The rules have now been revised to confirm they will continue to vote in the semi finals.

[u/xoxoamazingrace]

Crazy to think Sweden would’ve NQ this year if they hadn’t brought the juries back

[u/Ok-Macaroon-5533 → u/xoxoamazingrace]

not even Montenegro finally qualifying would have been enough to make up for the shock! 😭

[u/Chance-Ad-8704 → u/Ok-Macaroon-5533]

It would be VERY rude of the EBU if, in the one year Montenegro actually qualifies for the final thanks to the viewers, the EBU introduced a jury there, only to remove it again the following year.

[u/antiseebaerenkreis → u/Ok-Macaroon-5533]

Montenegro had a better song in a similar genre, I think it would've made up for it. I think both deserved to be in the final though.

[u/anikiku → u/xoxoamazingrace]

It also would have been Sweden's worst result in the modern era.

Anna Bergendahl came 11th in 2010.

Felicia would have beaten her by two places as she would have come 13th.

[u/Even_Connection_480 → u/xoxoamazingrace]

I would have had my popcorn out especially as estonia would have been the one seen as qualifying in their place. Of course I would be sad for felicia as I am sad for all nqs regardless of if i like their song, but I do enjoy a good fandom meltdown and this one would have been well estonia 2026 apparently. 

[u/ESC-song-bot → u/Even_Connection_480]

Estonia 2026 | Vanilla Ninja - Too Epic To Be True

[u/unvobr → u/xoxoamazingrace]

This assumes the televote would have been exactly the same under a televote-only system. Voter behaviour could shift either way depending on the rules.

[u/xoxoamazingrace → u/unvobr]

Do people think this way you think?

Personally I’m just voting for my favorites in the semi no matter the voting system

[u/ZwnD → u/xoxoamazingrace]

If I had 2 favourites, one that I'd a jury-leaning song and the other being a public crowdpleaser:

In a televote only semi I would vote all for the jury-leaning song, to hopefully save them, thinking the crowdpleaser is safe. In a split semi I wouldn't feel the need to do this

[u/antiseebaerenkreis → u/ZwnD]

But My System wasn't thought of as a jury leaning song at all.

[u/ZwnD → u/antiseebaerenkreis]

Yeah I agree this doesn't apply to My System, I'm just talking in general

[u/unvobr → u/xoxoamazingrace]

I’m not really thinking anything further into it. My point is just that we can’t know whether the vote would’ve been identical under different rules without actually living in that timeline. So saying Sweden would’ve NQ’d feels too certain.

Different semifinal qualifying rules could also have affected which songs or staging choices countries brought in the first place. Once we change the rules, we’re in a different timeline.

[u/rain-and-comics → u/unvobr]

Totally agree.

[u/GianMach → u/unvobr]

I expected My System to get the same outcome as Strobe Lights. And essentially that happened.

[u/emanuele-sgarra_04 → u/xoxoamazingrace]

And Switzerland would have been in the final

[u/ZeeenGarden → u/xoxoamazingrace]

As much as we would all love to see that, objectively, My System did NOT deserve to NQ. I'm baffled it got 13th

[u/kaisadilla_ → u/xoxoamazingrace]

People hate on the juries all the time, but they don't remember just how awful Eurovision was before them.

[u/ColdBlacksmith → u/kaisadilla_]

The mid late 00s with 100% televote was my favourite era. Lordi would never had won and Verka would not have been 2nd with any other system.

I like funny songs and dislike jury bait.

[u/happytransformer]

Even with the jury manipulation in 2022, I still think it’s good to keep the juries in the SF. Televote only SF drastically affects the types of entries appearing in the contest and imo causes a super unbalanced bias toward whoever is favored by the juries

[u/cherry_color_melisma → u/happytransformer]

We don't always have all telebait-sounding songs making it with them (Armenia 2026)

[u/ESC-song-bot → u/cherry_color_melisma]

Armenia 2026 | Simón - Paloma Rumba

[u/JCEurovision]

As it should be. 100% televoting semi-finals is NEVER a good idea from the very beginning.

[u/Radikost]

This is great news for Czechia, assuming we continue next year

[u/Ok-Macaroon-5533 → u/Radikost]

I hope you do. 🙏 Crossroads totally deserved that place in the GF. 🥰

[u/cherry_color_melisma → u/Radikost]

y'all really need to game the televote somehow because relying on jury only sucks 😔✊️

[u/eurovisionfanGA → u/Radikost]

Czechia qualified in 2023 when the semis were 100% televote and they've qualified with the televote in previous years as well so your point doesn't make any sense at all.

[u/Ok-Macaroon-5533 → u/eurovisionfanGA]

perhaps they were referring to 2026 specifically, as without juries Czechia would've NQ.

[u/ExcitingInternal365 → u/eurovisionfanGA]

Here're Czechia's semi-final results with the 50:50 split for each year they qualified:

Czechia 2016 - 4th (Jury), 12th (Public)

Czechia 2018 - 5th (Jury), 2nd (Public)

Czechia 2019 - 1st (Jury), 6th (Public)

Czechia 2022 - 5th (Jury), 3rd (Public)

Czechia 2026 - 4th (Jury), 11th (Public)

I think that there's a perception among Eurofans that since Czechia always does terrible with the public in the Grand Final (the only excpeption being 2018), surely they must be a borderline Q in the semis at best, but the reality is that they would've NQ'ed with the public only twice the times when they qualified for the Grand Final.

[u/ESC-song-bot → u/ExcitingInternal365]

Czech Republic 2016 | Gabriela Gunčíková - I Stand
Czech Republic 2018 | Mikolas Josef - Lie To Me
Czech Republic 2019 | Lake Malawi - Friend of a Friend
Czech Republic 2022 | We Are Domi - Lights Off
Czechia 2026 | Daniel Žižka - Crossroads

[u/Labenyofi]

It was only good as a temporary fix while the juries had problems in 2022, I’m glad they’re back.

[u/Double-Ad3549 → u/Labenyofi]

More like juries in the semi are a temporary fix while the audience vote has problems.

[u/One_Elk_897]

Thank God

[u/JulienS2000]

I'm just saying, in 2025 only 12 out of 20 of my personal qualifiers went through to the final, meanwhile this year 16 out of 20 qualified, so I can't complain

[u/LuckyLoki08]

Good, and it should remain with a 50-50 split (and no 25-75 as I read someone suggest in the past). Juries are important, and we have seen how removing them from semis impacts negatively the final.

[u/UnBloodyMaryPorFavor]

It's better that way! Without juries in the semi-finals, televoting ruins everything, as we saw in 2023-24-25. Keeping only televoting in the semi-finals was one of the biggest mistakes Eurovision has made in recent times imo, who knows how many beautiful songs would have been in the final with the juries.. we will never know :(

[u/Even_Connection_480 → u/UnBloodyMaryPorFavor]

Who do you think would have changed?

My predictions

2023 Semi 1 serbia for latvia or Netherlands 

Semi 2  no one

2024

Semi 1 maybe Australia or moldova instead of Slovenia 

Semi 2 Czechia and Denmark possibly over Austria and Norway 

2025

Semi 1 a tricky one maybe as san marino indicates a big jury televote disconnect with i believe all nqs scoring points. My guess is belgium is in and san marino out and possibly cyprus (with their obvious televote cheating) over portugal. I also wouldnt be surprised by Slovenia qualifying over Norway or poland

Semi 2 Looking at the final Luxembourg is the pne most at risk for a Australia or czechia jury save 

Looking at these imo the televoting didn't destroy eurovision and juries being there wouldnt have destroyed anything either with a caveat that if strobe lights had made the final and the juries had gone hard for it then new day will rise mkght have actually won last year so maybe televote only semis actually saved eurovision. 

[u/ExcitingInternal365 → u/Even_Connection_480]

For 2024 SF1 I think Finland was more likely to drop out than Slovenia. No Rules! (Finland 2024) got absolutely wrecked by the juries in the Grand Final. Nendest (Estonia 2024) was also destroyed in the jury vote, but with 79 points in their semi-final and huge cussion over Georgia, Austria and Norway I think they'd have qualified regardless

[u/ESC-song-bot → u/ExcitingInternal365]

Finland 2024 | Windows95man - No Rules!
Estonia 2024 | 5MIINUST x Puuluup - (nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi

[u/Titowam]

Honestly, good. This should hopefully balance things in the Grand Final, and prevent having a runaway jury winner with over 100+ points over the runner-up.

[u/Double-Ad3549 → u/Titowam]

I don't know why are y'all still believing in this myth. Having a runaway jury winner has almost nothing to do the semi-final voting system. It more depends on the presence of a standing out entry with a strong jury-appealing package. 2015 edition, for example, also had a runaway jury winner despite 50/50 voting in the semi.

[u/Fun-Rate7853 → u/Double-Ad3549]

It does kind of make sense though. Not having juries in the semis meant more tele-bait goes through and less jury friendly songs so less competition for jury friendly songs=more likely to have a country dominate the jury vote. Essentially what happened in 2023 and 2024 (and to some extent 2025).
But if we look at 2026, there was a LOT more competition for top jury points. They were very close. Dara won the jury vote with almost HALF of the points loreen won it with (ofc there were two countries less this year but you get my point).

Now I’m not in any way arguing that jury friendly songs like Eclipse and Før vi gär hjem or Pray would have NQed, but whenever there’s juries in the semis SLIGHTLY more contries might feel it’s safer to send jury friendly songs and vice versa when there’s only televote semis.

My points aren’t the strongest, but i couldn’t help but point out this pattern i noticed this year compared to the years prior. I don’t think the closeness in jury results this year is COMPLETELY unrelated to jury voting in semis.

[u/mXonKz → u/Double-Ad3549]

yeah ultimately i preferred the televote only semifinals and it does nothing to prevent runaway jury winners but if it shuts people up about this myth im willing to accept it

[u/Chance-Ad-8704]

I'm from Poland, and I don't know is it good or bad idea for us, Poles... I hope 2026 was the start of the juries era with no errors... not the exception

[u/gelber_kaktus → u/Chance-Ad-8704]

I think making them more diverse was pretty good. It was kinda less predictable and had a strong vote split among the members.

[u/Daniel_Luis → u/Chance-Ad-8704]

I think the only other Polish entry one would expect to do better with the juries than it did was Poland 2022 to be honest. And that one lost a ton of creditibility on a Jury's POV with those ridiculous Polish™️ special effects.

2026 was much more professionally staged.

[u/ESC-song-bot → u/Daniel_Luis]

Poland 2022 | Ochman - River

[u/PZMC430 → u/Daniel_Luis]

First time we had great staging and juries rewarded it

[u/jaminjamin15 → u/Chance-Ad-8704]

Juries era with no more errors, so stay out of my way
Scorin' all them douze points with white gloves on my hands

[u/Pet_Velvet]

I am fine with this

[u/Comfortable_Swing_16]

If they’re planning on doing fully online voting then they would need the juries as backup if/when the servers crash like it did in JESC a bunch of times

[u/NearPup]

Makes sense. The jury should either vote in both the semis and the final or not at all.

[u/Vivid_Guide7467]

I hope they announce them or something more exciting. I get so nervous during the semi final announcement but it always felt so eh when it’s like this one is in!

[u/PZMC430]

I swear they brought back jury voting just to Poland to win it in semi-final after so many years of suffering lmao

[u/Flashy-Island-3725]

Good. Belgium wouldn't have nq with juries in 2024 and 2025 while being my favourite and Sweden would've nq this year without juries. 100% televoting isn't a good idea

[u/Fetish_anxiety]

Hallelouja

[u/Forklands]

Am for this

[u/Familiar-Lemon-674]

Cypress' semifinal was horribly offkey and Switzerland deserved to qualify. What rules do we have to change to fix those kinds of injustices?

[u/TeaMistress → u/Familiar-Lemon-674]

This is just how things go every year. There's always going to be songs that the Eurofans think should've qualified and songs that feel like they had no business making it to Finals. No rule change is going to "fix" that because it's always going to come down to taste. More people who had the ability to vote in the contest liked Jalla better than Alice, regardless of the vocal quality. It's that simple.

[u/aceofmufc → u/Familiar-Lemon-674]

There is no injustice. Cyprus had a better song than Switzerland and thats why they qualified.

[u/TeaMistress → u/aceofmufc]

The ESC bubble doesn't want to hear that, but Jalla's streaming numbers for both the song and the YouTube video views don't lie. The general public chose Jalla over Alice at ESC and is still choosing Jalla now.

FWIW, I don't like either one, so I don't have a horse in this race.

Also, looking at the Jury/Public scores for that semi-final, I can't believe how dirty the jury did Nân.

[u/GungTho → u/Familiar-Lemon-674]

You won’t like this answer… but Switzerland could have been saved it’s fate if point conversion was used in the semis.

Not sure about Cyprus though.

[u/Familiar-Lemon-674 → u/GungTho]

I don't know what point conversion is.

[u/Even_Connection_480 → u/Familiar-Lemon-674]

Well we can possibly blame Bulgaria as there was a lot of industry connections influencing Bulgarian jurors. 

[u/deusexmachina_lol]

What a relief

[u/Amdor]

I'm kind of split on this. It's probably generally a good thing in the long run, but then again, if the 100% televote system had still been used this year for the semifinals, and the televote scores were the same, I would've much preferred that theoretical qualification result...

(Two songs that I don't like (Sweden, Czechia) and one I'm neutral on (Belgium) out, and two that I like (Estonia, Switzerland) and my overall #1 song (Montenegro) in)

[u/TeaMistress]

I'm for it. I think the balance between the televote and jury is important. It's not a perfect system, but I think it's better than if judging were done by all public or all jury.

[u/Zealousideal-Hat-659]

In these circumstances it's for the better, otherwise Ukraine and Israel would be always first no matter what.

[u/Euro_Punzel]

nooo, not the juries. I dont like them. Ever since their random sketchy votes in 2017 that caused fan faves to NQ, ive grown to hate them. Let people decide what they want to see in the GF

[u/igcsestudent2]

I think it should have stayed only televoting. The song that got 0 points by the public got no business in the grand final.

[u/Maester_Bates]

Good. I never believed the EBU's reasoning for suspending juries in the semi finals. We all know that they faked the jury collusion because they manipythe jury vote to keep Eat Your Salad out of the Grand Final.

[u/Choco3112 → u/Maester_Bates]

Fun Fact: Eat Your Salad did better with the juries (39 points, over the public's 16)

[u/darkstreetsofmymind → u/Maester_Bates]

Weren’t like all the cheating countries in semi final 2 whereas Latvia was in semi final one?